Year in Review: 2012 was not a good year for school district facing financial issues

Superintendent of Schools Thomas Pandiscio had a challenging year that ended with his retirement. File photo The year started out with promise.

School superintendent Thomas Pandiscio gave his first-ever “State of the District” presentation to town officials and the public on Jan. 9, described as “a frank assessment of the successes and challenges that our schools face.” It was an effort to talk about long- and short-term methods of crafting a school budget that the public would support, together with looking at future revenue source changes. He proposed towns “sharing the wealth” in terms of state aid, by committing 48 percent of town revenue to education. The Wachusett Regional School District has the lowest per-pupil spending in the commonwealth.

The Wachusett Revenue Sharing Task Force was formed, comprised of school and town officials, and one proposal is giving the towns more control over their K-8 school budgets.

When the school committee voted its FY 2013 budget proposal on March 26, about 75 audience members applauded when the committee approved an $80.3 million spending package for next year, more than the $79.3 million Pandiscio had recommended. Town officials were noticeably absent, but several would be vocal in protesting their school assessments.

On April 30, the committee backed down and adopted the $79.3 million number. Holden, Princeton and Sterling voters supported the budget at their May annual town meetings, Paxton and Rutland didn’t.

The budget was in limbo until the Paxton override vote in July, with Pandiscio promising no “bombshell” reductions if the override failed.

The bombshell did land at the July 23 school committee meeting, but it was not because of the committee’s 15-3 decision to cut the budget to $79.1 million.

The committee began the meeting with a four-hour executive session, which audience members waiting out in the hallway expected to conclude with an announcement of personnel cuts/contract changes tied to the budget reductions. The new fiscal year had started on July 1, and the district was closing its books on fiscal year 2012.

Instead, the committee came back into public session to announce the firing of its business manager Peter Brennan for “failure to perform his duties as the district’s chief financial officer in a satisfactory manner.”

WRSDC chair Duncan Leith announced that Brennan, employed by the district for 12 years, had made $1.2 million in spreadsheet errors in the FY 12 budget and underforecast the FY 13 health insurance projections by $1.5 million.

“We think these are mistakes – big mistakes – but there was nothing intentional about what happened,” WRSDC chair Duncan Leith said.

Reaction to the $2.7 million in errors was swift – and angry.

School committee members called for a forensic audit – and argued over the extent (and cost) of one. Sterling parents protested budget cuts that included their middle school principal. School critics called for the resignations of central office officials and school committee members.

The WRSDC on Aug. 6 approved cuts that included 15 teachers, school libraries and the Sterling principal. Ten days later, the committee met in a special session to reinstate 14 out of the 15 teacher cuts, but let the other reductions stand.

In an email to staff on Aug. 13, Pandiscio announced his intent to resign.

“Our district needs to reestablish trust with our member towns and I will be more of a distraction than an aid to that process,” he wrote. “It is time for the Wachusett Regional School District to find a new superintendent. As much as my heart wants to work to solve the financial problems of the district, I fully realize in my mind that this will not be possible.”

Pandiscio was hired as an assistant principal at Wachusett Regional High School in 1984, named principal in 1993 and named superintendent in 2005. He has received consistent high marks in all his annual performance reviews.

Leith said he was not surprised by Pandiscio’s announcement, “but I’m surprised it’s this quickly. He feels he can’t be effective with people secondguessing his job performance.”

Some school committee members said they would not accept Pandiscio’s resignation, and called for a vote of confidence to continue his contract until June 30, 2013. Instead, members reconvened from an executive session on Sept. 10, announcing that Pandiscio would retire on Dec. 15, and that Rutland elementary school principal Anthony Gasbarro would succeed him as acting superintendent until a new superintendent is hired.

In October, district attorney Joseph Early’s office announced that it would not be pursuing criminal charges against the district or any member of the administration.

The Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials advised that it would look at the district’s controls in the accounting office, in addition to an audit by a private firm.

“Our internal controls were not as strong as they should have been,” Leith said. “It’s the public’s money, my money, the school kids’ money. We don’t want to see what happen again.”

In November, the district hired a new business manager, Belchertown resident Joseph Scanlon.

As the year came to a close, Holden selectmen, particularly Mark Ferguson, battled with the school committee over the cost of printing 4,296 pages of supplemental documents to the FY13 budget that the district said is available on-line, but at 50 cents per page would cost $2,148 to photocopy.

“They can have any information they need,” Leith said, and the district is happy to answer any questions about the budget, “but we will not run off 4,000 pages of copy.”

In his last report to the school committee on Dec. 6, Pandiscio wrote, “Clearly, I will always regret that financial problem with which we were confronted on July 16, and for now it does not appear that time is easing the burden of that regret. However, I believe that we have accomplished a great deal over the course of the last several years, and have established a strong foundation upon which you as a committee can build...

“Once again, thank you for providing me with so many wonderful opportunities for growth and change during my career here. I wish you every success as you cope with your immediate problem and will be available to offer Tony Gasbarro and the rest of the team any insight that they may find useful. More importantly, I wish you well as you choose a new leader to build upon the foundation that has been established.”